The CHRCDA Program in the Department of Pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center is intended to foster the maturation of pediatric junior faculty into independent physician-scientists who are skilled in cutting-edge methods of laboratory research and who pursue long-term academic careers investigating important issues related to childhood diseases. This Program is based on a pool of outstanding candidates, a strong curriculum of didactic courses, experienced mentors who perform state-of-the-art laboratory research, and an excellent research environment. The Principal Investigator/Program Director and the Training Director will receive assistance from an Internal Advisory Board and an External Advisory Board in selecting scholars, reviewing the progress of scholars, and ensuring the optimal operation of the program. Four scholars will be supported each year and will be drawn from junior faculty in the Department of Pediatrics, with particular emphasis on recruitment of women and underrepresented minorities. The Program Faculty will be drawn from four broadly defined areas of research excellence, namely Developmental Biology, Cell Biology and Cell Signaling, Infection and Immunity, and Genetics, Genomics, and Metabolomics. The Program Faculty will include mentors from the Department of Pediatrics and from other departments at Duke University Medical Center, in all cases characterized by a strong track record in research, funding, and mentoring. Didactic courses will complement the laboratory research experiences and will include a four-lecture course on writing and a five-lecture course on Responsible Conduct of Research. The scholars will have access to all of the shared research facilities at Duke University, including core facilities of the NCI-funded Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, the Duke Center for Human Genome Variation, the Duke Center for Human Disease Modeling, the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, and the Duke Translational Medicine Institute, among others.